I Have A Few Questions For Those In The USMC

[RedDemon91]

Recently I've been throwing around the idea of enlisting in a few years, nothing is set in stone, it's just an idea right now. I'm wondering what kind of opportunities are out there for me and what kind of field I could get into. I'm currently going to a community college to get my A.A. and will then transfer to UF for my Bachelors. I'm thinking about getting my degree in Criminal Justice but I'm not sure that will even get me far in the Marines, if anywhere. A friend of mine's wife just joined the army and because of her credentials, she'll be starting off as an Officer (she's in bootcamp now). As I said, I don't think that a C.J. degree will get you far in the service but I could be wrong. What kind of degrees will take you places and what sort of job opportunities are out there? Sorry if the question seems too broad. One thing is I don't do computers, so an IT job would be out of the question. Thank you guys for your time :beer:

 

[trickflow coupe]

best bet is to talk to a recruiter and see what your options are. depending on how many credit hours you have you can go in as a PFC(E-2) or you may qualify for OCS(officer candidate school) and go in as a 2nd Lt....and enlisted personal have more fun

 

[yuke175]

college degree qualifies for ocs regardless of major

 

[RedDemon91]

best bet is to talk to a recruiter and see what your options are. depending on how many credit hours you have you can go in as a PFC(E-2) or you may qualify for OCS(officer candidate school) and go in as a 2nd Lt....and enlisted personal have more fun

What does the job typically consist of? Or does it vary? And do you mean that enlisted personals have more freedom?

 

[RedDemon91]

college degree qualifies for ocs regardless of major

Oh I didn't know that. It has to be at least a Bachelors though, right?

 

[trickflow coupe]

i dont know what all qualifications you need to be an officer i am enlisted and yes we have more freedom to what we want and we do in our jobs

the way our MOS(jobs) breaks down is you have a 4 digit code like 0331 how that breaks down is
03-infantry
31-(your specialty) machine gunner you have 0311,17,21,31,41,51,52 and 69
as and officer only has 0302

also as an officer you depending on your field you dont really do much but supervise in the infantry as an officer you give orders,lead and supervise your marines but most of that is left to the enlisted leadership

i am an infantry machine gunner my job entails employing machine guns and gunnery along with disassembly and assembly and teaching new machine gunners tactics,ect...

Officers just supervise me to make sure im doing my job and they do paperwork lots and lots of paperwork that is military wide because if something gets screwed up its your fault automatically because your an officer and your held to a higher standard

like i said your best bet is to talk to a recruiter and see what you options are and dont let them bullshit you because they will and it is also getting harder and harder to get in the USMC is down sizing by 20k and i think the army is doing the same

i hope this helps:beer:

 

[RedDemon91]

i dont know what all qualifications you need to be an officer i am enlisted and yes we have more freedom to what we want and we do in our jobs

the way our MOS(jobs) breaks down is you have a 4 digit code like 0331 how that breaks down is
03-infantry
31-(your specialty) machine gunner you have 0311,17,21,31,41,51,52 and 69
as and officer only has 0302

also as an officer you depending on your field you dont really do much but supervise in the infantry as an officer you give orders,lead and supervise your marines but most of that is left to the enlisted leadership

i am an infantry machine gunner my job entails employing machine guns and gunnery along with disassembly and assembly and teaching new machine gunners tactics,ect...

Officers just supervise me to make sure im doing my job and they do paperwork lots and lots of paperwork that is military wide because if something gets screwed up its your fault automatically because your an officer and your held to a higher standard

like i said your best bet is to talk to a recruiter and see what you options are and dont let them bullshit you because they will and it is also getting harder and harder to get in the USMC is down sizing by 20k and i think the army is doing the same

i hope this helps:beer:

Ohhh ok, that makes sense.

What sort of bullshit should I look out for with recruiters?

Thanks alot for your advice :beer:

 

[trickflow coupe]

they will promise you the world and you will wind up getting screwed and whatever you do DO NOT GO OPEN CONTRACT you will wind up a refrigerator repair mechanic or something else retarded or something that will hate.Right now they dont need people to join so you have to to make them want you

this is what you need to make them want you

not be an idiot,excellent physical shape and desire to join...show them that you want to be marine

do not go in to the office with a chip on your shoulder iv seen recruiters tell plenty of people to get ****ed because they did that

now if you do join the USMC expect your life to suck like it has never sucked before for 13 weeks boot blows but its about 75% mental 25% physical but it gets better once you hit the fleet(main body) and your done with schools but your still going to be "the new guy" or boot(it stands for Barely Out Of Training) and you will get ****ed with how bad just depends on what job you get you could just be on trash detail and cleaning up the shop of you could be in your gas mask doing push ups in your shower while getting kicked in the ribs(iv had to deal with both of those being a grunt) but it comes with the job

 

[SonicDTR]

I think if you have already started college and have a plan to finish, then absolutely GET A DEGREE FIRST!!!

Once you get a degree, then join as an officer. Who knows, by the time you finish that degree your life goals may have changed.

Previous posters are correct in that your actual degree doesnt affect what MOS you get when you join. I know for the enlisted side, its about your asvab scores and what is open at the time. Dont sacrafice by getting a shitty MOS just to join 2 months sooner. Research the field you want to be in and wait for an opening in that MOS. Time spent in the DEP counts towards your total 8 year obligation in case you only serve one term and get out.(not sure how that might work for officers)

 

[Mach1USMC]

best bet is to talk to a recruiter and see what your options are. depending on how many credit hours you have you can go in as a PFC(E-2) or you may qualify for OCS(officer candidate school) and go in as a 2nd Lt....and enlisted personal have more fun

He should NOT talk to a recruiter unless he wants to go enlisted. If he talks to a regular recruiter he will only get info on enlisting- enlisted recruiters are only interested in numbers, not necessarily what is in the best interest of the person asking the questions.

OP, you need to talk to an OSO to get the best info unless you want to go enlisted.

More fun as enlisted? WTF are you talking about? I've known Marines both enlisted and commissioned. The long term opportunities offered by being commissioned far supersede being enlisted. There is nothing wrong with being enlisted, I've been enlisted for the past 21 years. Look at the career paths of most that have been in for that amount if time and tell me which one got farther? It's a no brainer.

 

[trickflow coupe]

He should NOT talk to a recruiter unless he wants to go enlisted. If he talks to a regular recruiter he will only get info on enlisting- enlisted recruiters are only interested in numbers, not necessarily what is in the best interest of the person asking the questions.

OP, you need to talk to an OSO to get the best info unless you want to go enlisted.

More fun as enlisted? WTF are you talking about? I've known Marines both enlisted and commissioned. The long term opportunities offered by being commissioned far supersede being enlisted. There is nothing wrong with being enlisted, I've been enlisted for the past 21 years. Look at the career paths of most that have been in for that amount if time and tell me which one got farther? It's a no brainer.

what im saying is who do you think has more fun in the marine corps a lcpl or a lt? i know that being an officer will give you a greater and better career im just speaking form my point of view iv only been in for 5 1/2 years but i wouldnt do it all over again and go officer would you? i woudnt not after seeing what they go through but then again this is from my point of view as a grunt i dont know you MOS and it may differ from mine but like i said this my point of view and besides we both know who really runs the corps and thats the enlisted it may be the officers bus but we are doing the driving :beer:

 

[03cobrah]

Recently I've been throwing around the idea of enlisting in a few years, nothing is set in stone, it's just an idea right now. I'm wondering what kind of opportunities are out there for me and what kind of field I could get into. I'm currently going to a community college to get my A.A. and will then transfer to UF for my Bachelors. I'm thinking about getting my degree in Criminal Justice but I'm not sure that will even get me far in the Marines, if anywhere. A friend of mine's wife just joined the army and because of her credentials, she'll be starting off as an Officer (she's in bootcamp now). As I said, I don't think that a C.J. degree will get you far in the service but I could be wrong. What kind of degrees will take you places and what sort of job opportunities are out there? Sorry if the question seems too broad. One thing is I don't do computers, so an IT job would be out of the question. Thank you guys for your time :beer:

how old are you op?

 

[jerrad]

He should NOT talk to a recruiter unless he wants to go enlisted. If he talks to a regular recruiter he will only get info on enlisting- enlisted recruiters are only interested in numbers, not necessarily what is in the best interest of the person asking the questions.

OP, you need to talk to an OSO to get the best info unless you want to go enlisted.

When I talked to my AF recruiter he asked if I had a degree, once I told him I did he had me contact his boss that talked to me about officer stuff.

Not sure if the USMC is different, that's just how it went down on my end.

 

[RedDemon91]

how old are you op?

19

 

[03cobrah]

19

well op i will give you my 2 cents i dunno how much it will help you.

just to give you a general idea, i went enlisted straight out of hs. imho, i will tell you to go ocs, the pay is better and it doesn't matter who has more fun in reality it's what your mos is and the command you are under.

i remember as a lcpl in whidbey island we had a little get together with officers and enlisted the officers were doing keg stands and shit we weren't allowed to.

 

[trickflow coupe]

hey op how far are you into your degree? the reason im asking is the wait for active duty can be over a year my little brother enlisted about 6 months ago and the wait for active duty for him was just over a year so he went into the reserves have you thought about doing that?

 

[jerrad]

hey op how far are you into your degree? the reason im asking is the wait for active duty can be over a year my little brother enlisted about 6 months ago and the wait for active duty for him was just over a year so he went into the reserves have you thought about doing that?

The AF side is the same.
I enlisted AF reserves in a AFSC that needs people. By the time I go to basic I'll be waiting 14 months.:nonono:

 

[Root1022]

Why would anyone come in enlisted if they have the ability to come in as an officer? If I would of had my degree you bet your ass I wouldnt of joined the Army Enlisted. If I was you OP and I was serious about joining I would get my degree and enroll in a ROTC program while in college.

 

[Matts00GT]

Why would anyone come in enlisted if they have the ability to come in as an officer? If I would of had my degree you bet your ass I wouldnt of joined the Army Enlisted. If I was you OP and I was serious about joining I would get my degree and enroll in a ROTC program while in college.

Because being enlisted is much more hands on and can be a better experience for some people.

I'm an O1 and honestly the only thing I like about my job compared to the enlisted side is the paycheck.

I've thought about giving my commission up quite a few times. The NCO side is the fun side.

 

[Root1022]

Because being enlisted is much more hands on and can be a better experience for some people.

I'm an O1 and honestly the only thing I like about my job compared to the enlisted side is the paycheck.

I've thought about giving my commission up quite a few times. The NCO side is the fun side.

Your paycheck is better, living conditions is better, not to mention all officers are paid BAH no matter married/single. I'm honestly not sure how the Marines do it but Army officers (that are a combat MOS such as 11Z) usually has a platoon from 2LT-1LT, when they make Captain they usually get put into a S3 shop or command. Thats when I can see the Officer side going down hill fast. One thing I would hate is to be an Infantry PL one day and be stuck in a plans office the next. Being the CO would of course have its perks.

As for the NCO side being the fun side thats true when it comes to working with soldiers/leading them. Usually the bond between a soldier and his NCO is alot closer than than of an Officer/Enlisted soldier of any type due to the fraternization rules (which is BS IMHO). For sure though the officer side does have huge downfalls (paperwork and so on and so forth) but as your go up in the NCO ranks it ends up being the same thing. The farther up you go the more bullshit you have to deal with.

I am in no way saying your wrong, but If I would of had my degree and knowing what I know now, I would still chose to come in on the Officer side. :beer: